


Indigo

by aretia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining, Pre-Canon, Rivalry, blade of marmora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 11:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 7,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10740693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Young Blade of Marmora trainee Thace has a crush on the ambitious new recruit.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> long overdue but here's things that were made for this fic  
> Cover art by drisrt: http://drisrt.tumblr.com/post/161072926916/commission-for-fluffy-keef-for-their-fic  
> Playlists by allthelettersandlights: http://allthelettersandlights.tumblr.com/post/160387983975/indigo-side-a-a-thulaz-playlist-an-upbeat  
> http://allthelettersandlights.tumblr.com/post/160388179010/indigo-side-b-a-thulaz-playlist-the-mellow

Thace’s life was ruined the moment the Marmora ship arrived at the training base from the Empire central command. Double agents working in the Empire recruited young Galra who had proven that they were committed to rebellion, and brought them back to headquarters for training.

Trailing behind the other rowdy new recruits was the most elegant Galra Thace had ever seen. What struck him first about his appearance was that he was so thin. Thace was of a slighter build than most Galra, and he felt insecure about that, but the newcomer was so willowy that he looked like even Thace could snap him like a twig. Yet he radiated such an imposing aura that Thace knew the opposite was true. 

“What are you staring at?” demanded a surprisingly deep voice coming out of the skinny Galra. Thace had been so distracted that he hadn’t noticed him step out of line and get right in his face. The face was as stunning as the body, with white geometric marks crossing his pale lavender skin. His long white hair was tied back in a ponytail. 

Thace had spaced out again and left the man waiting for a reply for about ten seconds. “Y-your uniform,” Thace stammered. The new recruit was dressed in the silver and magenta metal armor of Galra Empire infantry, which he knew would get him some odd looks in the Blade of Marmora. 

“Get out of my way and I’ll go change,” grunted the recruit, placing both his hands on Thace’s shoulders and shoving him. Sparks flew through Thace’s nerves at the touch. One of the guards grabbed the recruit by the arm and dragged him down the corridor, while the whole time he was casting a spiteful glare over his shoulder at Thace. Thace stared back inquisitively, wondering why this stranger had chosen to pick a fight with him.

The recruits usually formed their own clique and didn’t interact much with those who were born into the Blade of Marmora like Thace. He didn’t have any reason to expect, or hope, that he would ever speak to the man again. 

Until about ten minutes later.

“Thace, your sparring partner for hand-to-hand combat training will be… Ulaz.”

Oh no.

The thin, pale recruit from earlier, now dressed in the same pitch black bodysuit as everyone else, walked toward his place in the line across from Thace. He didn’t know what to expect, but one thing was for sure, if his training partner looked like that, he wouldn’t be able to focus on training for a single second.

A low growl in Ulaz’s throat announced that he was about to speak. “You had better keep up. I won’t fail my trial just because my training partner is…” He looked Thace up and down, and gave a disapproving grunt. “Less than ideal.”

“Pardon me?” said Thace, raising an eyebrow in challenge. “If either of us has to worry about that, it’s me, training with an ex-Galra soldier.” He watched Ulaz’s eyes widen; the barb had landed exactly where he’d aimed it. He twisted it deeper as he gloated, “I’ve been going through training a hundred times harder than anything the Empire can come up with since the age of five.”

Ulaz thrust himself into Thace’s face again and jabbed a finger to his chest. His sharp teeth were bared, gleaming. “You think being born here makes you special? You weren’t hand-picked out of thousands of reports by Kolivan himself. You’ve never had to choose to leave your family and everything you’ve ever known behind.” Thace withdrew, startled that someone he barely knew would make such a personal admission. “I’ve already thwarted Zarkon’s invasion of an entire planet by sabotaging some fleet orders. That’s how I earned my slot here. What have you done to contribute to the rebellion?”

Thace was busy coming up with a snappy reply when the training commander announced the start of a match, and before Thace had a chance to react, Ulaz punched him in the face. 

Well, he was right about one thing, at least.


	2. Chapter 2

“Screw Ulaz,” Thace growled to his friend Duran over a plate of sustenance sludge. Lunch breaks were the only time the trainees got to casually socialize, as immediately after their grueling day of training, they were required to go back to their isolated rooms. 

“I thought you were the one trying to do that,” Duran said with a smirk.

“Shut up!” Thace snarled, threatening him with his spoon. “You know what I mean.” Ulaz had quickly demonstrated himself to be in the top of the class, and everyone envied how easily he had won the favor of the senior officers. “Why does he have to be so…”

“Hot?” Duran offered.

“Yeah. That,” Thace said absently. “Wait. No! Stop interrupting me!”

Duran snorted a laugh so powerful that goo came out of his nose.

“I was going to say, why does he have to be so good at everything? He’s great at combat, so it’s not like he would even need to know how to fly, but then he goes and takes the flight simulator and aces that too? For what, just to show off? I think all he’s good at is sucking up, really. He thinks he’s Kolivan’s pet project. Newsflash, Drool-az, Kolivan doesn’t care about you or any of us. We’re number 3087 on the list of things he cares about. And did I tell you about the time when…” He trailed off when he realized Duran wasn’t meeting his eyes, but was staring over his shoulder.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Ulaz’s deep voice inquired behind him, making Thace jump out of his skin.

“Uh, no, go ahead,” Thace mumbled, while he shot Duran a desperate glance. _Did he hear anything?_ Duran shook his head. Thace’s shoulders drooped with relief.

“Don’t get the impression that this means I’m your friend,” Ulaz said, even as he slid into the seat next to Thace, making Thace’s fur bristle. “It’s just because Tara got a girlfriend, so my usual seat at the recruits’ table is taken.” 

“Sounds like you’re just jealous,” Thace scoffed. “Do you want a girlfriend?”

“Absolutely not!” Ulaz barked. “There are rules against relationships in the Blade for a reason. We need to be focused on training. We need to be devoted to the cause above all else, not each other.”

“Oh, look who’s got the whole handbook memorized,” Thace sneered. “Why are you so obsessed with rules anyway?”

Ulaz slammed his hands down on the table on either side of his tray and shot up out of his seat. “Forget it. See you on the training deck.” He carried his tray to a nearby waste receptacle and stormed off. 

“He knows those rules mean nothing, right?” Thace whispered to Duran once Ulaz was out of earshot. “Your parents broke those rules. So did my parents.”

“Maybe he doesn’t know that,” said Duran. “It must be pretty different growing up in the Empire, where everything is ‘yes sir’ this and ‘no sir’ that. And he was in the army, too. Give him a break, Thace. Give him some time to loosen up.” 

Thace scowled at Duran’s knowing look. His friend knew exactly what that conversation really meant to him. Ulaz being outraged at a relationship in his friend group and committed to the rule about no relationships in the Blade meant that Thace didn’t have a chance at dating Ulaz. He hated to think what insolent little part of him even wanted that.


	3. Chapter 3

It happened the first time Thace won one of their sparring matches. Ulaz had fallen into a rhythm of beating Thace every time, and by this point Thace was letting him win, letting him reveal his pattern and his weaknesses, until he decided to strike. When Ulaz charged at him first, like he always did, Thace sidestepped and grabbed his arm, and used his momentum to flip him onto the ground. Thace hadn’t anticipated just how much momentum, and fell onto the ground too, pinning Ulaz under his body and quickly catching his wrists in his hands before he had a chance to spring back up. 

“That was classic. I can’t believe you fell for that. Literally,” Thace teased. His voice caught in his throat as he slowly realized how close together their bodies were, and he searched Ulaz’s face for his reaction.

Ulaz was so startled by the sudden movement that he started laughing. His severe face cracked into a smile, his sharp cheekbones lifted and his eyes crinkled at the edges. 

Thace felt a pang in his heart that he had never felt before. There had always been attraction, sure, but that was easy enough for him to quash down deep inside him. This feeling wouldn’t be so easy to hide. He already felt the affection bubbling up from his stomach into his throat, and had to keep his lips pursed tight to stop himself from saying or doing something impulsive.

Ulaz realized how vulnerable he looked, and quickly hid the smile behind his usual serious expression. “Good work, Thace. But don’t expect it to be so easy tomorrow.”

A compliment? Thace thought he might melt into a puddle on the floor. He stood up, just to see if he could. Then he held out a hand to help Ulaz up. Ulaz took it, and the corner of his mouth twitched up again before settling back into his resting scowl. Thace resolved that he would do anything to see that smile again.


	4. Chapter 4

Their seating arrangement at lunch became a regular occurrence. Ulaz seemed to sit closer to Thace every day, and Duran even found excuses to leave the table early so that the two of them could be alone together, which Thace didn’t mind in the slightest. Ulaz would tell him stories from the Empire, of the culture of the colony that was his home, of the horrors of Zarkon’s reign that he had witnessed firsthand that had motivated him to join the rebellion. Thace would listen raptly, until the words blurred together and all he could think about was the calming cadence of Ulaz’s deep voice and the animated movement of Ulaz’s mouth and eyes when he talked. His thoughts would occasionally be interrupted by an “Are you listening?” Thace would reluctantly admit that he wasn’t, and Ulaz would start the story over again. 

One day, Ulaz didn’t show up. Thace searched the cafeteria, taking a long look at the recruits’ table, and found no sign of the familiar white ponytail.

“Where’s Ulaz?” he asked Duran.

“If anyone would know that, it’s you,” Duran replied. “I have no idea.”

Concern fluttered in Thace’s heart. Over the past few days, Ulaz hadn’t been himself in training, exhausted and more easily caught off guard. What if something happened to him?

Duran practically read his mind. “Relax. Overachiever that he is, he’s probably just skipping lunch to train or something.”

That was the opposite of reassuring. An image came unbidden into Thace’s mind of Ulaz collapsing from starvation. He grabbed his tray and slipped out of the cafeteria. 

He wandered through the silent hallways, past the doors of empty training rooms, until he heard a sound coming from inside one of them. He opened the door and found Ulaz inside, pacing back and forth on the mat, taking a step forward, then a step back.

Ulaz spared a glance at the doorway. “Get out,” he growled. Thace knew that if he really meant that, he wouldn’t hold back from physically pushing Thace out the door, and the fact that he didn’t, and continued pacing aimlessly around the mat in front of him, indicated that Thace’s presence wasn’t entirely unwelcome. He shut the door behind him, and set the lunch tray on the floor in the corner away from the mat. Ulaz looked toward the sound with curiosity. “What is that?”

“You didn’t show up to lunch, so I, uh, brought you food,” Thace explained. He realized how little he had thought this through, and braced himself for Ulaz’s reaction.

Ulaz’s response still surprised him with how non-confrontational it was. “Oh. That is considerate. But unnecessary.”

“You need to eat, Ulaz,” Thace countered. 

“If I don’t master this, they won’t let me move on in training,” Ulaz protested, deflecting Thace’s concern.

“You’re already better than everyone else at everything. Why do you insist on getting ahead?” Thace asked.

“That’s what this is to you?” Ulaz said, his voice rising. “Some childish competition? I am training so that I can serve the Blade of Marmora and stop Zarkon.”

Thace sighed. Ulaz’s stubbornness could easily wear out his patience if he wasn’t so inexplicably fond of him. “Whatever you say, poster boy. So what is it you’re hung up on?”

Ulaz ruefully pointed at the small video screen hanging in the corner. “This.” He pressed play, and the screen showed a video of a Galra instructor doing a cartwheel.

Thace couldn’t contain his laughter. He covered his mouth, but the telltale twitching of his ears still gave him away. 

“What?” Ulaz demanded, balling his hands into fists. 

“There is no way that would be useful in combat,” Thace chuckled.

“Our coach said it would be useful for dodging a blow and recovering quickly,” Ulaz argued.

“Fair enough,” said Thace. “You seriously don’t know how to do this? I could do that since I was a child.”

“Yeah? Prove it,” snarled Ulaz.

Thace walked up to the mat, and flipped himself from hand to hand back into a standing position without hesitation.

Ulaz stared at him in awe. “Is that something you learn in Blade-born training?” Ulaz asked quietly.

Thace realized that this was one of his only chances to impress Ulaz, to be better than him at something. “Um, yeah,” he said. “You try it. It’s easy.”

Ulaz did the same thing he did earlier, placing one foot gingerly on the mat, swinging his arms out and leaning forward slightly, then stepping back again. Thace hummed impatiently. Ulaz growled at him. He bent over and placed his hands on the mat like he was going to attempt it, except he didn’t push off with his foot hard enough and landed on his stomach. 

Thace stifled another laugh. 

“I give up. I’m afraid I’m going to fall and break my neck,” Ulaz muttered.

“Well, you did fall. But you didn’t break your neck, did you?” Thace asked, hoping Ulaz wouldn’t notice he was using a tone as if he were speaking to a child. Ulaz shook his head. 

“Here—I’ll—I’ll help you.” Thace held out his hand and pulled Ulaz up. The weight of Ulaz’s hand in his was familiar by this point, but still electrifying every time. 

“Just—start from the beginning, and—I’ll catch you if you fall.” He swallowed nervously every few words. He had no idea what he was getting himself into, except that it involved touching Ulaz, and Ulaz was letting him. 

His training partner had come to trust him so much that he didn’t say a single word in protest. His face was hard set with determination as he lined his feet up on the mat, Thace standing behind him. He rolled onto his arms, and when his legs started to swing askew, Thace caught him by the waist. He placed one hand on Ulaz’s thigh to steady him, and his brain short circuited. It was a good thing he didn’t need to use it too much, since doing a cartwheel was second nature to him, and so was teaching his little siblings how to do it. It was also a good thing Ulaz couldn’t see his face from his position, since it was contorting in a compromise between professional façade and unconcealed ogling. 

“In the Empire, we used blasters. I know nothing about close combat,” Ulaz lamented, his voice coming from somewhere near Thace’s knees. Thace was thankful for Ulaz chattering as usual and giving him something to focus on other than the feeling of his hands on Ulaz’s body.

“You knocked me out twenty straight times before I figured out how to beat you. I wouldn’t call that knowing nothing,” Thace reminded him.

“Or maybe I’m just stronger than you,” Ulaz needled.

“Careful, or I’ll drop you.” 

The casual banter distracted Thace and he suddenly noticed that Ulaz wasn’t moving. He was stuck in a handstand. He didn’t know what to do next, or maybe Thace was holding him there by accident. Thace slowly, carefully turned him over and positioned him to land on his feet. He feverishly took in the feeling of Ulaz’s waist and hips and thighs, the taut muscles underneath his skin, and the tight jumpsuit just over it that indulged so much and left so much more to be desired. When Ulaz was standing back upright, Thace’s hands lingered on his waist for a moment too long. Thace’s fur stood on end and he dropped his hands, looking away in embarrassment. 

“Again,” Ulaz demanded, and Thace nearly keeled over.

They practiced it several times so that Ulaz could get a feel for it, and so Thace could try to regain control over his thundering heartbeat, to no avail. Then Ulaz was able to do one without Thace touching him at all. He kept his hands hovering near his sides, moving with him but not making contact, which to his surprise caused him even more tension than actually touching him. 

When Ulaz landed that one, he turned to Thace in apparent amazement. “I did it,” he said, clearly proud of himself. “Thank you.” Then he broke into the most radiant smile Thace had ever seen. His mouth was open, his eyes were closed and the tips of his ears twitched with glee. And this time, he didn’t try to hide it when he realized Thace was looking. He made eye contact with Thace and his smile softened.

Thace wanted to run out of the room and get as far away from Ulaz as possible so that he could melt in peace, but a thought shot through his head that he still had unfinished business here. He asked Ulaz, “Now will you eat something?”

Ulaz blinked. “I suppose,” he said, with barely concealed eagerness.

The food sludge had gotten cold, but apparently Ulaz liked it better that way, or he was just starving. Thace had noticed the hollow of his stomach and the conspicuous rumble inside it when he held him by the waist. He had memorized every detail of Ulaz’s body that he could get his hands on, how could he not notice? His concerns about Ulaz overworking himself were not misplaced, but he was relieved that Ulaz didn’t seem averse to Thace caring for him. Maybe he would do it more often. 

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of the training room, Ulaz was no different than when he was sitting next to Thace in the cafeteria, sharing stories about whatever came to mind in between bites. To Thace, however, it felt very different. He felt like he’d finally crossed the point of no return. Alone with Ulaz, he was over the cliff of sense and falling deep into the chasm of adoration.

But Ulaz was alone with him, and he didn’t behave any differently than when they were in places where they could be seen. Ulaz acting like just a friend to him wasn’t purely out of fear of the consequences. Either he really did internalize the rules that deeply, to the point where he thought feelings would compromise his capability as a Blade, or, more likely, he had no romantic interest in Thace whatsoever. 

Thace wasn’t surprised or even disappointed. He felt more like he was accepting something he had always known in the back of his mind to be true. He had no reason to suspect that Ulaz felt the same way about him, only empty hope. And cutting off that hope, though it would be hard with Ulaz looking so tempting and so trusting in front of him, was something he had to do before he would be ready for his Trial of Marmora.


	5. Chapter 5

Thace’s fur was damp with sweat and blood. Nicked by blades in a hundred places, he dribbled blood on the floor everywhere he moved. His limbs were sore, every joint having been twisted at angles farther than they were made to go. He was still catching his breath from a blow that knocked the wind out of him and probably broke a few of his ribs. But as of this moment, he was still going.

He clutched his blade like it was the only thing keeping the life in his body. Before the trial, all swords training was done with ordinary steel swords and knives. The trainees were presented with their luxite blades just before entering the trial. They had to awaken it to earn it and become members of the Blade of Marmora’s elite combat forces. But how was he supposed to fight off waves of trained Marmora swordsmen with only a flimsy little dagger? The thing was supposed to transform into a larger sword when he truly needed it. But he’d been in mortal danger a dozen times in this trial, and he still couldn’t connect to it. 

Well, he knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere by resenting it. He parried another blow with the small sword. 

Luxite blades were heavier than steel ones, more powerful, but also harder to control. Thace hadn’t had any practice using one, or much practice using blades at all, so for the most part he resorted to his tactics of hand-to-hand combat. One of the warriors charged at him, and Thace stepped to the side, grabbed them by the waist, and threw them into the wall.

He sensed one approach behind him, nearly getting their sword around his neck, but he shot out his leg and kicked them in the abdomen, knocking them back from him. Two came at him from the front and he punched one of them, while the other one immediately swung down with their blade and Thace blocked it with his.

The opponent he was facing now had a familiar fighting stance, and it reminded Thace of his training partner. For a moment, he was taken by the idea that he really was facing Ulaz behind that three-eyed mask, and he froze. He couldn’t hurt Ulaz. They sparred, but that was never really hurting him. He couldn’t touch him with a blade.

His hold on his blade loosened, and next thing he knew it had been knocked from his hand, and the opponent’s blade was swinging right towards his throat. He ducked, but didn’t quite make it out of the way in time, and the blade connected with his temple, cutting to his skull. Thace cried out and fell to his knees, clutching his hand to his head to try to stop the bleeding. He knew he had to find a way to escape this trial now, or he wouldn’t make it out of the next room alive. 

Thace crawled over to where his blade lay on the floor and picked it up. He pushed himself to his feet. Even with the masks on, the other warriors looked so smug as one of them sneered, “You are not meant to go through that door.”

And they were right. He was going to go through a different door. He had noticed that the doors between the rooms were arranged in a lock format, with a short gap between the exit to one room and the entrance to the next, and the door behind would close before the door in front opened. The walls of the chamber between the doors had seams as if they were doors themselves. If he could get one of those doors to open before the door to the next room did, maybe he could find a way out. 

The door shut behind him, and immediately Thace wedged his blade into the seam in the other wall. He turned it, and it opened enough to get his fingers in, so he grabbed the hilt of his blade in his teeth while he pried the door open with his hands. The door to the next room slid open and the warriors appeared from their portals in the floor. It was a mistake to peek. “He’s trying to escape!” yelled one of them when they saw Thace lingering in the doorway, and they all ran after him. He didn’t have time to pry it open any further. He threw himself through the narrow opening, and the door clamped shut on his ankle and he fell on his face. A hand grabbed onto him, but he yanked his foot out of its grasp and through the door just in time.

Thace sprinted down the corridor as fast as he could with a limp in his ankle, checking over his shoulder to be sure no one was following him. The wound on his forehead was still gushing blood, blinding him in one eye. His heart pounded from the exertion of the trial and now the running, which only made the blood flow out of his wounds faster. He saw spots from blood loss. He turned a corner, and almost crashed into the wall in front of him. This corridor had to end somewhere. 

Finally, he ran past a door. He skidded to a stop on his heels and pressed his hand to the panel, and it slid open to a laundry room, of all places. He grabbed a shirt out of one of the laundry bins and held it to the wound on his temple. In the process, he knocked over the entire laundry basket and spilled its contents onto the floor. He made a mental promise to whoever’s laundry this was to apologize and do their laundry for a month once he wasn’t on the brink of death. In the meantime, the pile of clothes on the floor looked like the perfect place to collapse.


	6. Chapter 6

Thace heard the whoosh of a hydraulic door opening, and backed himself against the wall. He was sure that someone had come to reprimand him for being a coward and failing his trial. But the figure in the door was familiar, and not one of the officials. “Ulaz?”

“Thace,” Ulaz greeted him, sounding just as surprised to find him here as Thace was to see Ulaz. He quickly approached him and kneeled down in front of him. Ulaz must have just finished his own trial too, because he was wearing the same form-fitting black and gray trial uniform as Thace, with portals of indigo light on the neck, waist, and ankles, and arcs of magenta glow accentuating his slender neck and flat chest. Thace hadn’t realized how badly he wanted to see Ulaz in that outfit until he actually saw it, and now he couldn’t think about anything else. As usual, he couldn’t focus on anything when Ulaz was around. Losing a significant amount of blood probably didn’t help either.

“Congratulations on completing your trial,” Ulaz said.

“I didn’t complete it,” Thace retorted, holding out his knife.

“That will come in time,” Ulaz said calmly. “They will give you another chance. What matters is you fought bravely, and you survived.” 

“Hardly,” Thace laughed, pointing to the wound on his temple. 

Ulaz licked his thumb and reached out to touch Thace’s head, smudging the dried blood off with his fingertip, claw carefully tilted back. Thace flinched, but then relaxed into the touch as Ulaz’s claws worked their way into Thace’s fur and placed soothing scratches on the base of his ear. “Ulaz? What are you…”

“There is something I have to tell you,” Ulaz said urgently. “Thace… ever since the moment I saw you, I have had feelings for you. I’m sorry I don’t always show it in the most obvious ways. When I avoided you or was mean to you, it was just because I was afraid of what I was feeling. But you have been so patient and kind to me, that I couldn’t help falling deeper. So… Thace, I love you, and I want to be with you.”

Thace blinked. “Same here,” he blurted, unsure of what else to say.

“Oh, thank the stars! I was afraid you were going to say you just saw me as a friend,” Ulaz said, and cracked the smile that Thace usually hoped so desperately to see. But something was off about it. Instead of being a glimpse into the genuine Ulaz beneath his veneer of hard seriousness, the smile itself was a mask for a deeper unease. Thace could tell that he still had something on his mind. 

“What’s wrong?” he prompted. 

“Well, in a way I had hoped that my feelings for you were unrequited. Because we can never be together. The Blade has rules against that. And I didn’t want you to go through the same pain I am going through, of having what I want always be just out of my reach.”

“Ulaz, don’t be ridiculous,” Thace said. “Those rules are just a formality. Lots of people break them. My parents, for example. The Blade lineage goes back centuries. You think that could have happened if we were strictly forbidden from having relationships?”

“Of course you wouldn’t understand, being a Blade-born,” Ulaz growled quietly. “As a recruit, my legitimacy is always in question. I break one single rule, no matter how pointless it may seem to you, and I’ll be shunned by this organization.”

Thace nodded solemnly. He hadn’t thought of that perspective, and he felt bad for being insensitive to Ulaz. “You’re right, it won’t be easy. We won’t be able to be public about it, or spend that much time together. But if we work hard and pull enough strings, we might be able to steal a few moments when we’re unsupervised.”

“But think of what we could have instead of that!” Ulaz said. “Instead of a stray touch of hands in the hallway, we could kiss on the bridge of our own spaceship. Instead of the Blade’s rules we could have nothing but the stars and skies to contain us.”

Now Thace was thoroughly confused, and it wasn’t because he wasn’t paying attention this time. He was hanging on every word Ulaz said, and he still had to ask, “What are you talking about?”

Ulaz took Thace’s hand and said, “Run away with me, Thace. I already have a pod ready. We’ll leave this place and all its stupid rules behind.”

“Now you’re talking crazy,” Thace said. “I believed you when you said you loved me, but now I don’t know if I even believe that, because you’re obviously messing with me right now.”

“Why would I lie about any of this?”

“Because… that’s absurd,” Thace declared. “The Blade of Marmora is the only home I’ve ever known. And your home, your family, you said you left it all behind to fight for the rebellion against Zarkon. Don’t you still want to do that?”

“Everything I have sacrificed is already worth it because I met you.”

“Wow, Ulaz, I… I’m not worth that much,” Thace sighed. “I’m flattered that you think I am, but I’m not. The Blade needs us. We have to stay. And if that means we can’t have the relationship we both want, then, well, I guess that’s that. But be patient with me and I swear I’ll make it work. I want you too, Ulaz. More than I have words to say.”

“I can’t be patient,” Ulaz insisted, voice threatening to break. “We have to leave tonight.” 

“Why?” Thace asked.

“Because Zarkon’s fleet is going to attack this training base,” Ulaz sniffled.

That statement made Thace’s heart drop into his stomach like a stone. “What? How do you know that?”

Ulaz was fully sobbing now. “Because I gave him the coordinates,” he confessed. When Thace looked at him with speechless horror, he continued, “I came to the Blade of Marmora as a spy for the Empire. I was supposed to get much farther than training, find the location of the main base, and help Zarkon destroy his enemies. But I never planned for you. Now all I want is to cut all ties with Zarkon and disappear with you. I can’t take back what I’ve already done. All I can do is protect you.”

Thace recoiled from Ulaz and staggered to his feet. “You’re a traitor?”

“Don’t call me that, my darling Thace. It wounds me.”

Thace was incredulous. “You are,” he snarled. “Don’t call me pet names when you’re a dirty lying traitor.” His grip tightened on his knife. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it. He couldn’t hurt Ulaz, and it wouldn’t accomplish anything, no matter how angry he was.

While Thace was standing at his full height above him, Ulaz was curled into a ball on the floor with his hands braced over his head. “Please forgive me.”

“If there’s an attack coming, we have to fight. The only way I’ll forgive you,” Thace said, “is if you stay and fight with me.” 

“Zarkon’s sending an entire fleet! You’ll die!” Ulaz cried. He stood up and threw his arms around Thace forcefully, and Thace stiffened in his embrace. “I can’t lose you.”

“I don’t want to lose you either,” Thace confessed. “But knowing you betrayed us to Zarkon, it feels like I already lost you. And if I went with you, I’d lose myself too. You said you’d protect me. I am choosing to do this, and it will be dangerous. Will you stay by my side, and fight for the Blade until the last?”

The symbol on the hilt of Thace’s knife glowed and filled the room with a blinding white light. Ulaz withdrew his arms from around Thace and stepped back. The weapon disappeared into the glow and revealed itself in a burst of sparkles. Thace felt the weight of it grow in his hand. His thin, symmetrical dagger had transformed into a long, curved saber with a line of indigo light running down its center. He admired it for a moment, then turned his attention back to Ulaz, who was staring at him with a look of resignation.

“I am deeply sorry that I hurt you, Thace. You were my only home in this place,” Ulaz said. “But if you insist on going to your doom, perhaps my home in the Empire will still welcome me back.” He turned his back to Thace. 

Thace grabbed his wrist. “What? Ulaz—no—please—if we survive this, we can be together like you wanted!”

Ulaz tugged his wrist out of Thace’s grasp and walked toward the door. He spared one longing glance over his shoulder. “Farewell, my love. I hope you do survive, and that we meet again in the future.” He said nothing more, but Thace recognized the almost instinctual movement of his lips, an oath in the Galra Empire, a curse in the Blade of Marmora. _Vrepit sa._ The door shut behind him. 

“Ulaz! No!” Thace screamed after him. His voice didn’t sound loud enough to his ears, certainly not loud enough to pass through a metal door, but every time he tried to scream louder it only tore at his throat. His injuries suddenly reminded him of their existence, and brought him to his knees with pain. He collapsed, crumpled and shuddering on the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

“What is the meaning of this?!” Kolivan demanded, pointing at the screen that showed Thace and the hologram of Ulaz, projected by his suit for his trial.

Ulaz trembled. When he had finished his trial and been immediately dragged to the command office because he had appeared in another trainee’s hologram, he was nervous. When he saw that the other trainee was Thace, he was terrified. Now, he feared for his life. “That’s not me!” he screamed.

“I know it isn’t,” Kolivan said in a measured tone. Through the voice modulator of his mask, it was enough to make Ulaz shiver. “But there must be a reason why when Thace’s deepest hopes and fears are laid before him, he conjures up an image of you.”

Ulaz was petrified. There was no way for him to deny what the hologram said and proclaim his loyalty to the Blade of Marmora without sounding exactly how a traitor would sound if they were trying to make themselves less suspicious. He was trapped. His future with the Blade, his life even, might be ended with the next words Kolivan said.

“Answer me honestly,” Kolivan growled. “Have you attempted to start romantic relations with Thace?”

Ulaz took a few moments to process the question. Then, he replied with a question of his own. “Your concern with Thace’s hologram of me is that he has a crush on me?”

“That is correct,” Kolivan confirmed. “You and Thace are both promising young trainees who could be great assets as spies in the Galra Empire. But in that position, a relationship between the two of you could put us all at risk, as I’m sure you know, Ulaz.”

He sensed Ulaz’s hesitation and continued, “If you were a traitor, or ever planning on becoming one, we would know, from your hologram.”

Ulaz thought back to his own vivid hologram of the house he grew up in, the house that was destroyed by Galra forces, collateral damage from putting down a rebellion on the colony. In the hologram, his parents were grieving over a shrine of him, thinking that he had died in the Galra army. He returned, but they didn’t seem to recognize him, or accept him once they knew that he was a rebel against the Galra Empire. His parents were loyalists, even though it never did them any good. He couldn’t explain to them that he was doing it to protect them. 

At least if he had stayed in the army, he could provide for them like a good Galra son, and he might have had a chance to see them again. Now he knew he could never return. He would never know if they were safe, if they were still homeless, if they had been imprisoned for living on the streets. He could only hope that the Blade of Marmora would be victorious and they would be better off for it. 

“The reason we do these trials is to test the strength of our trainees. The first part tests your combat prowess and your wits, and the second part tests your ability to confront your emotional burdens and connect to your truest self,” Kolivan explained. “But the reason we use a hologram specifically is so that we can see it and respond as necessary. Traitors always reveal themselves in their hologram trial. Yours revealed no such evidence.”

The tension drained out of Ulaz’s body so fast that he felt he might collapse. He wasn’t being accused of anything. 

But Thace was.

“I ask you again. Have you initiated a relationship with Thace?”

Would he? Maybe. In light of that hologram, he recalled all the signs that Thace had feelings for him, the stolen glances, the casual touches. Ulaz had willfully ignored it, but he couldn’t deny that he was drawn to Thace, too. Thace was the only one who was nice to him, no matter how many insults and punches Ulaz threw his way—or how many Thace threw back. Thace was the only one who listened to him and was genuinely interested in what he had to say. Thace cared about him, and made him feel like he belonged. And now, after seeing a hologram of himself dramatically confess his love to Thace, he wished he were brave enough to say those things too. 

Should he? No. Kolivan was right. The Blade of Marmora’s cause was far more important than his own feelings. After everything he had sacrificed to become a part of the rebel organization, he wasn’t going to turn his back on it just because of a crush, even if he had proof that Thace felt the same way. 

But Kolivan’s question wasn’t would he, or should he. It was had he. And he had not. If he admitted that he had any emotional connection with Thace beyond what was expected of training partners, he could lose his only chance at using his skills in the war against Zarkon.

“No, sir,” Ulaz said. 

“Then Thace imagined all of this? If that is the case, we may have to reconsider his placement in favor of a support role on the base. He is far too emotionally unstable to be trusted as a field agent.”

“What?! But he’s worked so hard!” Ulaz protested.

“So you do care about him,” Kolivan countered immediately, and Ulaz turned to stone. “Did you lie to me earlier?”

Even though he wasn’t a traitor like the hologram, if Thace lost his opportunity because of something Ulaz said, Ulaz would still feel like he betrayed Thace. He could never live with himself if he let Thace down. If anything, Ulaz was the emotionally unstable one, and Thace was the one keeping him sane. But it wouldn’t do any good to tell Kolivan that.

Ulaz straightened his posture and steadied his resolve. “No. I only meant that to deny such a talented soldier a position in the Blade of Marmora would be a disservice to our cause, sir.” 

“That is for me to decide,” Kolivan growled. “Thank you for your cooperation, Ulaz. You may be excused.” Kolivan turned his back to him. 

Ulaz took another look at the display screen. The hologram version of himself had disappeared, and all he saw was Thace curled up on the floor, folding in on himself from pain. He quickly memorized the location of the room on the map in the bottom corner of the screen. Without another moment of hesitation, he bolted out the door and through the halls.


	8. Chapter 8

Thace woke up and dragged himself to his feet. He staggered out of the laundry room, and collapsed again as soon as his feet crossed the threshold. Even the cold metal floor would be a relief to his battered body, but before he hit the ground, a pair of strong arms caught him and lowered him gently into a warm lap and chest. For a moment, he felt so calm that he thought he was dying. Then he opened his eyes and saw that Ulaz was the one holding him, and his heart raced.

"Ulaz? I told you, I'm staying. Although my injuries are worse than I realized. I might not be as much use here as I thought…"

“Thace, it’s okay,” Ulaz soothed him. “The base is not under attack. You were in a hologram simulation.”

“Wait… That was a hologram?” Thace repeated, still drowsy and disoriented from pain.

“Yes,” Ulaz replied. “It’s over now. You’re awake. It’s really me you’re talking to.”

Thace nodded. With the amount of pain he was in, he easily accepted that he was indeed awake. “So you’re not a traitor?” Thace asked.

"I give you my word that I am not,” Ulaz said solemnly. “It is your choice whether or not to believe me."

"Of course I believe you," Thace said, alarming them both with how readily he said it even after the hologram messed with his head. He was too trusting. It would be all too easy for him to fall for a trap like he did in the simulation. But he didn’t have to worry about that with Ulaz. Ulaz deserved his trust. He rested his head against Ulaz’s chest, relieved that the real Ulaz wasn’t a traitor.

But part of him wished he could go back to the simulation. The real Ulaz wasn’t in love with him. 

A sudden realization snapped him alert again. “Oh no. You saw my hologram. You heard… You know… Everything…” Thace moaned, hiding his face in his hands and rolling off of Ulaz’s lap. The wounds he had received in his trial were thorough but superficial. Embarrassment was what would really kill him.

“Well, some of the things that the hologram said are true,” Ulaz admitted.

“Like what?”

“Like the part where…” Ulaz scanned the hallway for security cameras, making sure they were not being watched, and keeping his eyes off of Thace, who was staring at him expectantly. “I’m not very good at expressing my feelings.” He pulled Thace close again, cradling the back of his head in his hand. Then he leaned his face down to meet Thace’s, and kissed him. 

Thace was startled, but with Ulaz’s thin lips moving against his, sharp teeth nipping his lip possessively, he quickly relaxed and returned the kiss. Thace closed his eyes—and instantly passed out.

Ulaz tugged on Thace’s lower lip with his teeth as he pulled away. “I hope that wasn’t out of place,” he said. Thace only let out a soft groan in response. “Thace?” He looked at Thace’s unconscious face with concern that turned into a fond smile.

Ulaz held him close to his chest, with one arm under his knees and the other supporting his shoulders, and lifted him up. Thace’s head lolled onto his shoulder. "Let's get you to the infirmary, shall we?"


End file.
